• WFS has opened its new cargo terminal at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, which measures more than 25,000 m² and is located in the centre of the airport’s Cargoport Zone.
• This will support all 380 current WFS customers in the Lyon area, and is expected to sustain more than 300 direct and indirect jobs locally.
• It contains over 4,000 m² of cold rooms for specialised and sensitive cargo, with 36 door docks for import/export handling including five dedicated air freight pallet transfer docks.

Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), a SATS company, has officially opened its new 25,400 m² cargo terminal at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport (LYS). The Aéroport de Lyon DC1 facility is located at the heart of the airport’s Cargoport zone and was a collaborative project between Aéroports de Lyon, WFS, Prologi and the em2c Group, the developer and contractor with design, build, and technological oversight of the project.

Aéroport de Lyon DC1 centralises WFS’ Lyon operations at a single modern site directly connected to the airport’s runways. The facility supports all 380 WFS customers in the Lyon area and becomes WFS’ second-largest operation in France after Paris Charles de Gaulle.

It has also been reported that its impact on the local economy will sustain more than 300 direct and indirect jobs

With 4,400 m² of cold rooms for specialised and sensitive cargo, capacity suited to the storage of perishables products, and 36 door docks handling cargo imports and exports, including 5 dedicated to air freight pallet transfers, the building is designed to optimise flows between landside access points, handling areas, and airside operations.

Aéroport de Lyon DC1 will meet the specific needs of demanding sectors such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology and the high concentration of companies in these sectors in the Lyon region.

With high environmental standards incorporated from the design stage, the new hub is targeting a ‘Very Good’ BREEAM rating to reflect its sustainability credentials. The building is solar-ready, with a roof designed to accommodate a future photovoltaic installation.

“Aéroport de Lyon DC1 represents a new milestone for WFS in Lyon, where we first commenced operations in 1971. Its design, temperature-controlled areas, and organisation of cargo flows enable us to strengthen our capacity and operational efficiency to handle sensitive and high value goods for our airline and freight forwarder customers. Given Lyon’s strategically important location, industrial base, and high-value economic sectors, this new generation of logistics infrastructure reinforces Lyon’s position in national and European logistics flows and will strengthen the economic attractiveness of the region,” said Laurent Bernard, Vice-President of WFS France.

V commented: “Aéroport de Lyon DC1 illustrates how our business is evolving: beyond the building itself, we design infrastructure that is directly integrated into our customers’ operations. Our role was to align the specific constraints of the airport environment, real estate requirements and WFS’s operational needs to create a tailored, high-performing solution built to last,” said Vincent Sadé, Vice President, Head of Capital Deployment France, Prologis.

“The Aéroport de Lyon DC1 project stems from a shared vision among regional and international partners driven by a desire to strengthen the region by incorporating environmental performance from the construction phase onwards. This facility provides a solution tailored to the specific requirements of air freight,” said Yvan Patet, President of the em2c Group

“The Aéroport de Lyon DC1 facility marks the continued expansion of Cargoport, the freight zone at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport and France’s second largest air cargo hub. The result of close collaboration between Prologis, the em2c Group, WFS and Aeroports de Lyon, this project epitomises regional supply chain and significantly strengthens the competitiveness of the region,” Cedric Fechter, Chairman of the Management Board, Aéroports de Lyon.

Aéroport de Lyon DC1 is the latest new-build cargo terminal in the combined SATS and WFS global network, which operates over 215 stations in 27 countries. These cover trade routes responsible for more than 50 percent of global air cargo volume.

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